How Low Can You Go? Diesel's New Jeans Push the Envelope at Milan Show

Models working the Milan runway this week for the brand Diesel better not have a visible panty line. That is because, as People Magazine reports, "the Italian label debuted super-low-rise straight-leg jeans placed so low on the hips that they revealed just a hint of butt crack."

Throughout the show, the models also wore all-white or all-black contact lenses, and some had painted smiles (suggesting living Emojis) as they walked on the landscape of graffitied tapestries, created with nearly two miles of fabric spray-painted by 7,000 artists. It was a look, the Associated Press suggests, evoked the Zombie Apocalypse.

To that end, the show featured clothing in a mix of deconstructed denim, innovative textures, oversized outerwear, and rebellious layering. In tune with apocalyptic look, some pieces appeared burnt, torn, or melted. There were numerous oversized puffer jackets with extreme proportions and distressed leather coats that fit in to the brand's grunge aesthetic.

But, as People writes, the scene-stealers were the low-cut jeans that the brand hopes will revive the polarizing 1990 trend: Bumper jeans.  

"Bumpers have been around since Alexander McQueen debuted the near-bosom-exposing silhouette in his 1993 'Taxi Driver' collection, per Vogue. As described by museum curator Andrew Bolton, who also works on the Met Gala exhibitions with Anna Wintour, McQueen designed bumpers to elongate the frame and show off the undercurve of the spine," People adds.

The New York Times reports the show concluded with "three models (two men and a woman) in jeans slung so low that they revealed a coin-slot size portion of their bum cracks. From the front, you couldn't see what the jeans revealed, but as the models passed, the audience was treated to not quite a full moon – perhaps a one-eighth moon. To put it delicately, their upper posteriors were well groomed."

The Times adds that "Diesel designer Glenn Martens was serious about his just-a-smidge-R-rated jeans. In a preview before the show, Mr. Martens noted that since McQueen doesn't make bumsters anymore, he saw the white space to 'bring them back.' According to a Diesel representative, the jeans will be produced.

"Mr. Martens pointed out that the jeans had elasticized jockstraps inside to hold them in place. 'It glues really well,' he said."
 
In addition, Diesel's seasonal collection featured super sheer nipple-revealing dresses and denim skirts so short that it put the no-pants look to shame.

According to a press release, the capsule was designed to be "elevated yet disrupted, corrupted, slashed, destroyed, and impossibly low-cut." It was presented in an installation designed with graffiti art done by almost 7,000 amateur and expert artists.